Jesus has picked a predictable time and place to show his face in LaSalle.
It’s the way he’s doing it that’s a little unusual.
“It is unique,” said Deacon David Slish of St. John de LaSalle parish on Buffalo Avenue.
A number of parishioners at St. John have seen the face in a red altar cloth hung for Sunday’s morning mass. By the time Monday rolled around, a crowd had rolled in.
“It’s no miracle or anything like that,” Slish said. “It’s just something that happened. But it’s Holy Week so people will take that as a little significance of Christ in their life.”
Two such people are Dottie Farrell and her husband, Joe, who live next door to the church and have belonged to it since the 1960s. After a Monday service, Slish turned on the lights and told people to look carefully at the altar cloth because people had seen the face of Jesus there the day before.
“We went, ‘Oh my gosh, yes,’ ” Dottie said. “I knew what it was right away. It’s like a vision that he’s there. I always tell everybody to behave themselves because he’s there.”
The image was formed when the cloth was placed over the marble-top altar and the vases with palms were pushed back into it. Extra people from outside the parish who heard about the image have been dropping by since it was noticed. On Tuesday morning, about 20 extra people were on hand, Slish said.
It was observed by a female parishioner sitting in a pew who alerted a church official. When she showed the official the image in the right lighting, he saw it too, Slish said.
The cloth will be taken down after Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper as the church prepares for Good Friday.
“People take it for whatever they want,” Slish said. “But it’s quite unique to happen during Holy Week.”
Dottie Farrell, a self-described artist who especially likes to paint, said she plans on drawing the image.
“You can look at it from the left, the right or the center and get a different perspective of it,” she said. “But you see the face of Christ. It’s just a reminder, letting us know that he’s still here.”
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Father Lynn Shumway, pastor of Saint John de LaSalle on Buffalo Avenue, said a parishioner approached him after Palm Sunday Mass and pointed out that the alter cloth looked like it had the face of Jesus on it. A palm plant pressed against the cloth, causing it to wrinkle in the shape of the face.
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RELIGION: St. John de LaSalle parishioners see image of Jesus in an altar cloth
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